Sunmelia Beach Resort

After spending one week at Sunmelia Hotel & Spa, I can honestly say this was a complete waste of money. This hotel does not meet the standards of a 5-star all-inclusive resort. The food was one of the biggest disappointments. It was bland, repetitive, and almost the same every single day. The hotel prioritizes quantity over quality, especially when it comes to the food and drinks The juices had no real taste, and although there were many desserts, they all tasted almost identical. The cocktails were equally disappointing—watery, flavorless, and poorly made. The service was far below expectations. Drinks were often served in plastic cups or in glasses that were visibly dirty. Housekeeping was unacceptable. Our room was never properly cleaned during our entire stay, despite being occupied for a full week. To make matters even worse, there was extremely loud music and noise every night until around 4:00 a.m., making it impossible to get proper sleep. This is absolutely not suitable for families with children looking for a relaxing holiday.

I am writing this review from and English family perspective. We arrived at the hotel at around 3am and the staff were very helpful and friendly. They checked us in very quickly and offered us help with our bags to our room. Our room is perfectly fine for our family (we are two adults and an 8 yr old). We have a sea view double room and it has a double bed and single bed. The facilities in the room are good. We have tea and coffee and a fully stocked fridge every day with water, coke, sprite etc. The food buffet is absolutely fine but not catered for English. The hotel isn’t an English hotel and most of the other families are from other places in the world so nothing here is catered for English. That being said, the food was still nice and could easily find foods that tasted nice. There’s loads of fresh salad and meats with rice and mash potato to eat. The lunch time buffet down at the beach restaurant was our favourite for lunch. They always had kebab chicken or lamb with a large selection of salad with rice or chips which we all loved to eat every day. There’s even a lady that sits down there and make made to order flat breads every day which are really delicious. In the mornings we used the gym and put our towels out on the sunbeds and did this about 7am. We had no trouble getting the beds we wanted everyday. The pool is great and is quite big so enough room for everyone to have fun. They also have daily activities in the pool which looked fun. The pool bar does always have a queue but it goes down pretty quickly and they are very friendly. Cocktails are basic but nice. They also serve beer and all soft drinks including a self service coffee machine. The private beach is lovely and just a short walk down the pathway to get there. They have a bar and snack bar down at the beach too so can still enjoy your all inclusive at the beach. Within the lobby there are a few shops that offer all your designer goods and these seem pretty good. We bought a fair few things from them and the guys that work there are all very friendly. The gym is basic but it was ok to make up a few of your own workouts. We took a taxi up to the shopping centre which cost us 5 euros. The shopping can keep you entertained for hours! If designer clothing, shoes and accessories are your thing, bring a second suitcase as you can get really carried away!

On arrival, our first impressions of the resort were positive. The grounds are well maintained, the pool area is attractive, and the beach is lovely. Unfortunately, that is where the positives end. Having stayed at many all-inclusive resorts over the years, I can honestly say this has been the most disappointing experience. While the hotel charges five-star prices, the overall experience is nowhere near five-star standard. The resort appears to be significantly understaffed, and many of the staff members we encountered were rude, unhelpful and, on some occasions, unnecessarily aggressive when dealing with guests. The pool areas become extremely overcrowded, although it is usually possible to secure a sunbed if you are prepared to get up early. The biggest issue is the bar service. It is not uncommon to wait around 20 minutes for a drink because there is often only one member of staff serving, which is completely inadequate for a resort of this size. Despite being advertised as a family-friendly resort, noise levels throughout the evening and into the early hours of the morning were excessive. Loud music, shouting and screaming regularly continued well past midnight, making it difficult to relax or get a good night’s sleep. There appeared to be little effort from the hotel to manage the noise or ensure guests could enjoy a peaceful environment. Housekeeping has also been well below expectations. During our first three days, our room was cleaned only once. Although the minibar was restocked, we were left without toilet paper. Even after the room had supposedly been cleaned, there was still visible hair and dirt on the floors and in the bathroom, leaving us questioning the overall standard of cleanliness. More concerningly, a member of the housekeeping staff was caught going through a personal bag in our room. This was extremely upsetting and completely unacceptable. Guests should be able to leave their belongings in their rooms with confidence that their privacy and personal possessions will be respected. This incident significantly damaged our trust in the hotel and overshadowed our stay. The resort is also located a considerable distance from local shops and amenities, meaning guests are largely dependent on the facilities within the hotel. Unsurprisingly, the on-site shops charge significantly inflated prices because they know many guests are reluctant to travel elsewhere. Another frustrating aspect is the drinks policy. Not all drinks are included in the all-inclusive package, and guests should be aware that staff regularly approach people around the resort offering premium cocktails and other drinks that cost €5 each. Rather than allowing guests to relax, these drinks are repeatedly promoted in a way that feels overly persistent and detracts from the holiday experience. The main buffet restaurant is one of the better aspects of the hotel. There is a good variety of food available, and the overall quality is decent. However, I would not recommend the à la carte restaurant. The service felt rushed, drink choices were very limited, and despite being asked to pre-order our meals, several of the dishes served were different from those we had selected. When we tried to raise this issue, the language barrier made it extremely difficult to resolve, leaving us with little option but to accept whatever was brought to the table. We still have time remaining on our holiday, but we already wish we had chosen a different resort. Based on our experience so far, I would not recommend this hotel to others. One final point is that, throughout our stay, we have felt that English guests receive a noticeably less welcoming attitude than guests of some other nationalities. While this may not be intentional, it has certainly been our perception and has unfortunately added to what has otherwise been a very disappointing holiday. Overall, this resort has the potential to be excellent because the grounds, beach and facilities are attractive. However, poor management, inadequate staffing, inconsistent housekeeping, excessive noise late into the night, long waits for basic services, intrusive upselling and a lack of customer care mean it falls well short of the standards expected of a five-star all-inclusive hotel. Unfortunately, we would not return and could not recommend it to others.

Our stay at Sunmelia Beach Resort & Spa was absolutely amazing and unforgettable. We stayed in room 2334 and came to celebrate our honeymoon. From the very first day until the day we left, the hotel made us feel truly special. Every single day our room was beautifully decorated, creating a romantic and welcoming atmosphere. During our stay, I also celebrated my birthday. The hotel surprised us with an even more beautifully decorated room, along with a delicious birthday cake and drinks. In the evening, they arranged a special birthday dinner for us with wonderful decorations and a beautiful atmosphere. It was one of the most memorable birthdays I have ever had. A very special thank you goes to Tuncai at the reception. From the first day until our departure, he helped us with everything we needed. He was always kind, professional, friendly, and made us feel welcome at all times. A big thank you also to Azad at the spa, who was an incredibly kind and caring person, and to Nehir, who organized everything perfectly and made our honeymoon and birthday celebrations even more special. We would also like to thank the bartenders Mert and Ibrahim for their excellent service, always serving us with a smile and making every visit to the bar enjoyable. A special thank you to the entire entertainment team. Every show was fantastic and full of energy. We especially want to mention Ares, with whom we built a wonderful friendship. He made our holiday even more enjoyable and unforgettable. The hotel was spotless, the food was delicious with a great variety, and every member of the staff made us feel at home. Thank you, Sunmelia Beach Resort & Spa, for giving us memories that we will cherish forever. We will definitely come back and highly recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a perfect holiday in Turkey.

If you like rave parties and can sleep listening to drunk people being loud in the hallways until early morning this hotel is for you. They claim themselves as family friendly hotel, but I can say it is definitely not. We have never experienced a «family friendly» hotel being so inconsiderate or not following a standard quiet-policy, so this was a huge disappointment. First thing we noticed was the bunkbed was nothing like advertised in photos from the hotel. The reason why we booked this room was because the bunk bed looked safe with safety rails all the way and in both beds. The lower part of the bunkbed had zero safety railings, and the upper one barely had any at all and we saw this is a too big risk to let our small kids sleep in the bunks. So we asked the staff about this and they sent us an foldable bed that broke down the second our daughter sat down in it where screws also fell out, they switched it again and that one was also very unstable and unsafe for one of our children to sleep in. We ended up with splitting up, dad in unstable bed, biggest child in lower bunk and me and our youngest sharing double bed. Our very first night in the hotel was extreme to put it mildly. To put some context to our situation: we started our travel from home 2 o’clock in the middle of the night and arrived in the hotel around 2 o’clock in day time, with two kids we were all exhausted and sleep deprived and was looking for an early night and good sleep. We didn’t get the sleep we very much needed as a rave party started at 21:00 and lasted until 00:00, and it’s not like the noise stopped from there when we heard drunk people yelling, slamming doors, running past our room. It was like we were in the party ourselves. This was on a Tuesday night so we were quite shocked, my husband went to reception and informed none of us can sleep in this extreme loud music and noise outside they only told us that they are allowed to play loud music until 00:00. Although most nights they played loud music after 00:00 and on Saturday they stopped the music 01:45, so the hotel does not follow their standard quiet policy from 00:00 as well. And you don’t get a break from the loud music in daytime, we don’t mind music at all. But when it’s so loud you can’t hear what we are saying to each other it’s an annoying factor. The only place that’s music free and we’re you actually can think and talk to each other is the beach. As for me that doesn’t fall asleep very easily this stay in the hotel was like torture at night, I got between 3-5 hours sleep every night. And having a neurological illness which requires minimum sleep of 8 hours made me exhausted. Minibar is free but are never refilled, we called reception for refill 3 times and nothing happened. We got refill when we went to reception and asked for it, extremely unprofessional for a hotel that claim «ultra» all-inclusive and are probably trying to save money by not stocking up until requested for. The food and the service in every main meal was one of our biggest disappointment besides the bed situation. You expect good food when you pay for all-inclusive so you don’t have to think about going out everytime for food. It is the same dull food every day in every meal except one night where there was one dinner that had a Turkish theme where the food was different, freshly cocked and actually very good. But that was one day out of our 9 days stay. People sneaking in line, hoarding fruits and food which made it go completely empty infront of your face. Your lucky if any staff comes to your table for drink order, when they don’t you have to go to the bar and stand waiting just to order something to drink for your dinner. The staff clean the tables but they don’t put new knives and forkes on, so if you come in little later for main meals you have to look around for tables that has this. I also experienced one time when I ordered something to drink in the bar for dinner (because the staff walking passed ignored us) that the staff behind the bar just handed me over four filled glasses, and when I asked for them to please take it to my table they said no. So then I asked if they have a serving tray I can put the glasses on and bring it myself, the answer was also no and then the staff took the glasses and showed me how to carry two glasses in each hand. I was literally stunned and really didn’t know how to react and what to say I just took the glasses myself hoping that I didn’t drop them on the way to our table. We also experience several days where the room wasn’t cleaned, where we had to ask reception to get it cleaned. Cleaner also repeatedly gave us only two new towels even though we were 4 people living in the room, so we also had to go to reception and ask for it (calling is useless as they never do as you request over the phone). And another thing we found funny was that everytime we got back to the room after the cleaner has been there, the fridge door was always left open. And it’s just weird because we don’t understand why the door is being left open when we didn’t get any refill in the minibar… is it to save electricity or what exactly? Another time our other hotel card was taken by the cleaner. The common toilets by the pool are absolutely disgusting, never toilet papers left, constantly wet every where and the smell is horrible. We chose to go all the way back to our room when we needed to as it felt more hygienic than to use these ones. There’s absolutely no toiletries in the room, which we also never experienced in other all-inclusive hotels. Then there’s people thinking they own the sunbeds by the pool and the beach. We experienced two times where people came over telling us they put their towels out in the early morning, the bed was empty when we got there so the staff removed their towels of course. One couple almost started a fight with us to claim two sunbeds from us, very uncomfortable situation when you also have small kids with you. The other time was on the beach where three people was glaring at me, huffing and puffing and was pretty obvious annoyed that I was alone with 4 beds (husband and kids was out in the sea bathing), they could also see our kids stuff, shoes, sand toys, drinks around the beds. The hotel is far away from everything and the taxi-guy that coordinates and orders taxis are taking 15-25 euros more than what it actually cost. One honest taxi driver confirmed our suspicions and showed us the actual prices for different places, we also saw two times the taximeter In Turkish lira was lower than the price you pay to the taxi-guy in hotel. And the thing is when you tell him you only want taxi one way and we take another one back he’s telling you that it’s not recommended because others will see the all-inclusive hand band and rip us off.. then he tells you the taxi will wait for you anyways and you can pay when you come back to hotel. On our last day we were sitting outside by the garden eating lunch when a long black snake came out from the bushes beside us and was going to the other flower bed. It wasn’t this experience that was so much scary. The scary part was that two staff tried to go after it and didn’t succeed they just left the area without putting up anything to block the area off. We then saw two young girls that caught sight of it, bending over and sticking their fingers in trying to touch it. I immediately informed one of the staff to go take them away. It was just weird that not one of the staff stayed put from the beginning until more help arrived. I don’t know anything about this type of snake, wether it’s shy or aggressive. But leaving that area open so the young girls had the chance to put their fingers on it was a huge risk to take. Save your money and many disappointments and chose another hotel. You will not get enough sleep, good food, service or any «good-feel» from staying at this hotel. This I’m writing especially for families. But if you’re looking for a place to stay to party / drinking purposes then maybe this hotel is for you.